The Adventure Zone: Dadlands

November 29, 2019 12:26 PM

In the grim darkness of the far future, there are only Dads.

We’re off on holiday this week, but we’ve got a special treat to tide you over. See, earlier this year, we developed an ambitious one-page RPG titled Dadlands, a post-apocalyptic dad-based survival sim. Then, in July, we convinced Dimension 20 DM Brennan Lee Mulligan to run a game for us. What you’re about to hear is the impossibly rowdy result of that experiment.

If you’d like the play the game yourself, you can view and download the rules below!

Download this episode

Dadlands RPG.pdf

posted by Mr.Encyclopedia (15 comments total)

It wasn't another episode of Graduation, which disappointed me at first but won me over quickly. Mulligan does a great job of GM and the game itself is a hoot. It's the first time I've listened to a McElroy live show and wished I had been watching it instead.

I listened to this back-to-back with the latest episode of Til Death Do Us Blart and you might not be surprised to be told this serves as a gust of fresh air after that one.
posted by ardgedee at 1:06 PM on November 29, 2019

I too was really excited for an episode of Graduation, only to feel let down...until this really got rolling. Fun fact: it was an enjoyable session.
posted by nubs at 1:39 PM on November 29, 2019

I WAS THERE

It was glorious and wonderful and I loved it.

I, too, was originally disappointed that a non-McElroy would be GMing. But then he got started, and I realized the great joy of four whole McElroys getting to team up as PCs against a GM.
posted by meese at 3:42 PM on November 29, 2019 [7 favorites]

What an ENDING
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:01 PM on November 29, 2019 [1 favorite]

Oh, also, Clint's whistles were so unbearably loud in the theater.
posted by meese at 4:25 PM on November 29, 2019 [2 favorites]

So how many whistles do you think Clint had total? Because I'm sure it was more than four.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 5:00 PM on November 29, 2019 [4 favorites]

Did anyone else catch Griffin mentioning that they'll be doing a series with Mulligan next year? Was I imagining that? I hope not, because if this ep was anything to go by, it should be a blast.
posted by ardgedee at 7:28 PM on November 29, 2019

I think Griffin was talking about Tiny Heist on Dimension 20.

In general, I like all of the dimension 20 stuff, so I'm looking forward to it. The other McElroys are involved, too!
posted by dinty_moore at 7:58 PM on November 29, 2019

This made me laugh a lot and it was great.
posted by bleep at 3:37 PM on November 30, 2019

"Fuck you wizard lord, come on" is right up there with "Abra-ca-fuck you!"

At the end when Griffin pulled 3 chaos tokens the crowd sounds like a football stadium.
posted by bleep at 3:53 PM on November 30, 2019 [3 favorites]

*whistle lord dammit
posted by bleep at 4:18 PM on November 30, 2019

Can someone explain the baby Bjorn gag? Why would drama dads be wearing baby bjorns?
posted by meese at 8:40 PM on November 30, 2019

Also since many of their fans will be or are dads some day I enjoyed the implicit advice baked into the game rules and the ending, don't be a dead beat or a hard ass. (And to add on to that also don't swerve wildly between them at random)
posted by bleep at 10:30 PM on November 30, 2019

I hope that for future seasons, they find a way to get a 5th party like Mulligan to run the game so that all the McElroys can play without a time crunch.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:21 AM on December 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

Had very strong Dungeons & Daddies energy - that's the Story Break dudes (plus Beth May and Daddy Master Anthony Burch) playing D&D as four dads from our world (a Rock & Roll Dad, a Sports Dad, a Crunchy Granola Dad and a Step Dad) thrown into the Forgotten Realms to rescue their kids.

I think it would be a very good idea for the McElroys to bring in a top-flight GM for their next series.
posted by Rock Steady at 12:10 PM on December 2, 2019